‘Go to Asda and try eating nothing but pasta for 5 days!’ Jack Monroe mocks critic who questioned why nurse couldn’t afford to feed her children

Jack Monroe, who campaigns against food poverty, mocked an online critic’s logic today (April 11) after they tweeted to question why a nurse couldn’t afford to feed her family. In a BBC investigation into the cost of living crisis, a nurse from Leicester told Panorama that she could not afford food for her three children and herself so sometimes she simply does not eat. Rebecca said she attributed this to the rising cost of living and has turned to accepting food donations to survive.

One critic, Kevin Edger quote tweeted the article, giving his opinion on her struggle. He wrote: “Yet you can buy a big bag of dried pasta, that would feed a family, for about £0.50p…. If you shop and cook properly, you can eat healthy meals really cheaply. I would love to see how she spends her salary…”

Jack Monroe replied by suggesting Kevin should attempt to eat nothing but pasta for five days. In a series of tweets, she also requested more help tackling food poverty from anyone who would be willing to do more. The tweets received 17,000 likes and many retweets.

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Jack wrote: “Hi Kevin, THE literal expert on budget cooking here who has spent the last decade on the front line of food poverty in this country. 500g bag of budget pasta, 29p. That’s 5 meals of 100g plain pasta, no butter, no salt, no sauce, no nutrition, and a whole 155 calories a meal!

“That’s only 456 calories a day, but hey, it’s not like nursing is physically demanding, on your feet all day, shift work, is it? Operating at a deficit of 1,544 calories a day is perfectly sustainable in your head, right? I sure hope so, because I’ve got a challenge for you pal!”

Jack then went on to tell Kevin to attempt a pasta-only diet in an attempt to replicate what he had suggested in his original tweet. They wrote: “Go to your local Asda and get 3 packets of SmartPrice pasta for just under a quid*. That’s 15 meals for you there – you eat nothing but 3 x 100g plain pasta for the next 5 days. Nothing else. No salt in the water. No butter. No oil. No pepper. No sauce. No snacks. No other meals.

“No tea, no coffee, no squash, no energy drinks, just this MAGIC PASTA that you think is the answer to everything. Come back to me on Wednesday and let me know how things are working out for you. And the * in the previous tweet? If they don’t have the Smartprice pasta, well…

“…you get one bag of 70p penne instead, because that’s the reality of life for people on a budget. Which means instead of 3 measly meals of 100g pasta a day, you’ve only got one. 155 calories to sustain you for a whole day. No vitamins. No variation. Just f***ing plain pasta.”

In another tweet under the same thread, Jack pleaded for more people to help them tackle food poverty. She said: “All these absolute wet wipes in your replies saying how EASY it is to cook healthy meals on a budget – pals I’ve been waiting ten years now for someone else to come along and help take some of the weight off my shoulders here, and yet here I am, working 100+ hours a week…helping people like Rebecca day after day, while people like you sit in your comfy lives telling us all how you’d be so much better at being poor than we are. SO DO IT THEN. Show us all how it’s done and I look FORWARD to your bestselling cookbook on the subject. Best of luck!”

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